"The most beautiful makeup for a woman is passion, but cosmetics are easier to buy."
—Yves Saint Laurent
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Contents
Favored
Art Tattler
the glamourai
The Non-Blonde
Perfume Shrine
Lisa Eldridge
Garance Doré
Smitten Kitchen
Into The Gloss
Grain de Musc
Lacquerized
Res Pulchrae
Drivel About Frivol The Selfish Seamstress
Killer Colours
Bois de Jasmin Glossed In Translation
Jak and Jil
Toto Kaelo
Worship at the House of Blues
I Smell Therefore I Am
Food Wishes
The Natural Haven
Messy Wands
1000 Fragrances
Moving Image Source
Wondegondigo
The Emperor's Old Clothes
M. Guerlain
Colin's Beauty Pages
Barney's jewelry department
Parfümrien
loodie loodie loodie
The Straight Dope
Sea of Shoes
London Makeup Girl
Sakecat's Scent Project
Asian Models
Ratzilla Cosme
Smart Skincare
Illustrated Obscurity
A.V. Club
Tom & Lorenzo: Mad Style
Eiderdown Press
Beauty and the Bullshit
La Garçonne Flame Warriors Everyday Beauty
Fashion Gone Rogue
Now Smell This
Dempeaux
Fashionista
The Cut
A Fevered Dictation
Nathan Branch
101 Cookbooks
BEST USE OF LACE
3.1 Phillip Lim wins this category hands down. Lace has been an occasional trend in fashion recently, spurred by Prada's Fall 2008/2009 all-lace show, and Phillip Lim shows a very approachable, wearable version of it here. Devoid of the more stuffy, starched, high fashion elements of late, this lacework is girly, youthful, and exceedingly pretty. As with the majority of Lim's work, these are pieces that can easily, almost intuitively, be incorporated into the rest of your wardrobe, adding that punch you lacked before without disrupting the flow of your ensemble.
BEST SKIRTS
Again, 3.1 Phillip Lim knocked it out of the park. Between his beautiful lacework and the fluidity in his tulip skirts, Lim has almost made a skirt believer out of me. His tulip skirts were what really sold me on his collection. Beautifully draped out of light, soft fabrics, these skirts provide an approachable, American form of elegance that will neither alienate nor intimidate those around you (or, for that matter, the wearer herself). In addition to tulip skirts, Lim featured both lace and cotton straight-cut skirts that lend instant youthfulness and cool, all of which were wearable and provided just enough fashion to keep things interesting.
BEST FOUNDATIONAL DRESS
Surprise, surprise - 3.1 Phillip Lim again (up until I saw Lanvin's collection, Phillip Lim was my pick for best collection). Foundational pieces are really the hardest to find, at least for me. They need enough interest in and of themselves that they can stand on their own (the draped waist, three-quarter sleeves), yet be quiet enough to blend into the background (neutral color, simple design). This dress achieves that rare task of being both neutral and interesting, maintaining the idea of the shift dress without drifting into a sartorial snooze. An additional plus - how often do you find a dress that looks dressed up, even complete, with the simple addition of a workaday brown belt?
BEST CUT DRESS
I cannot see how this dress would fail to flatter most figures. From the Yves Saint Laurent collection, this dress features enough flare at the bottom, width at the top, and definition at the waist to even out and flatter most figures (a feat that used to be what dresses were all about). In addition to beautiful figure flattery, the dress hits at just the right point, hovering around the knee. Between where this dress hits on the body and how it skims over it, this is an ideal cut for a dress.
BEST DRESS OVERALL
I absolutely love this dress. Also from YSL, this dress has the most beautiful racerback cut to flatter the shoulders. I also love the pattern, which came as a surprise to me. I'm not generally big on anything that hints at animal print, but the reddish tone to these browns, as well as the vertical print, got me. Overall, this dress achieves something the two before it cannot. While both of the previous dresses, and all the previous looks, have interesting details, this is the only look that actively draws your focus, but it still avoids ostentation and an obnoxious monopoly on your attention. It is the neutral for those who do not wear neutrals.
Labels: 3.1 philip lim, fashion notes, proenza schouler, ysl
2/09/2010 [0]
The weather has been gorgeous.
After four and a half months away at school, I've finally had a chance to come home to Toronto. And oh, what a relief it is to be home. While I can live happily in cities smaller than Toronto, I remain a city girl, and the town where I've been going to school is much too small, expensive, under-serviced and car-dependent for me. Alas, I'm not done with it yet; my lease is not yet over, my graduation ceremony is this week, and I have numerous loose ends to tie up before I leave for good. But oh, believe me, I will be leaving for good.
During my two-week break, I have been catching up with friends, babbling at my family, snuggling my beloved cat, and revelling in the pleasures of home: abundant sidewalks, walkable and varied neighbourhoods, a halfway functioning transit system (essential, since I don't know how to drive), cheap restaurants, my brother's PS3, and oh yes, shopping.
When I first sampled Après l'Ondée, more than a year ago, I was displeased and perplexed. I believe the phrase I used at the time was "urinal cake". Did I get a bad sample? Does it need to be sprayed instead of dabbed? I have given away the sample; I can't compare it with the scent I idly spritzed in Toronto's Guerlain boutique last week, only to discover that I'd fallen in love. Was it the warm weather, the exhaust in the air, that made this ever-chilly scent -- anise and violets in a spring mist -- so suddenly, absurdly appealing? I was astonished. I had to buy it.
I try (I do!) not to be profligate in acquiring makeup, but I am a sucker for red lipstick. I own more variations on red lipstick than any woman ought to have: corals, bricks, wines. My latest is YSL Rouge Pur in 131, Opium Red, which gets raves on Makeupalley; now I know why. This is a rich, glowing, deep red, faintly warm, utterly beautiful. Alas, it bleeds like mad, necessitating the use of lip brushes, lipliner, concealer, the whole shebang.
I finished watching The Wire when I should have been studying. I fear I have become one of those tedious Wire evangelists, but seriously, this show is fantastic; once you get past the in-medias-res confusion of the first episodes (a process that must be repeated with every season of the show) it becomes the most complex, gripping, twisted tragedy. I am now in withdrawal: I've watched The Wire, I've seen all of Battlestar Galactica, Deadwood and Six Feet Under, Mad Men does not return until August, I'm not quite ready to take on The Sopranos, what should I do? Am I ready for another show? Perhaps not. Lately I have been using the TV to upgrade my Rock Band 2 skills, not quite the same sort of thing.
Labels: consumer diaries, guerlain, the wire, ysl
5/24/2009 [4]
I've not been blogging lately because I've been moving into my new apartment, which still does not have an Internet connection (sigh). Most of my plans in that regard are working out, although I am still trying to figure out how to slipcover the ugly furniture without access to a sewing machine.
We're having a last few warm days before the fall really sets in, so in honour of that, a few last summer things:
A little over a year ago, I spent *mumble* euros at one of the Les Néréides boutiques in Paris. Representational jewellery can come off kind of cutesy, especially if you overdo it and especially as you get older, and some of the stuff they sell is inadvisable for anyone old enough to vote, but I love their Les Violettes collection, all deep dusky blue and gold. (Image taken from Regencies, one of the rare businesses that ship Les Néréides within North America.)
Apparently I am on a deep blue kick. I covet this Véronique Miljkovitch dress; so very summery, with the filmy, wispy fabric and the draping, but the colour keeps it fairly grown-up.
I am new to perfume and my nose is not well developed, but I could swear my mother wore YSL Y when I was a small child, or something very like it. Anyway, I'm really loving it lately; it's green and a little chilly, a real white-blouse-and-pearls kind of fragrance, but it doesn't have the smooth, cold perfection of Chanel No. 19; there's a hint of honeysuckle that sweetens it, and something a little spiky and off in the composition (maybe a note of cumin?) that warms it up. I keep thinking of sunlight filtered through green leaves.
Labels: les néréides, notes, véronique miljkovitch, ysl
9/05/2008 [1]
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